I'd rather be thrifting

    It's always exciting to go thrift shop shopping. You never know what you'll find. It will either be a treasure that you'll keep forever or something that you will sooner or later regret that you spent a dollar or two on. But yesterday was a more than fabulous buy for me!

   I found 8 ADORABLE chef figurines.  I asked the lady how much, since there was no price for the set and she said $8. I couldn't resist. I had to! They're each special and different in their own little way. I've started my chef figuring collection.

   It's not everyday that you can find a Japanese/ Chinese( I can't tell which on it is) calligraphy set. Yet alone it being only $2! They can range up to over $20 on ebay!!
  9 items for $10. I call that a steal!

Simply Springtime

                                                                                                                                                   

Rabbit hole in Mandie's pen

     When the weather gets warm around here, exciting things start to happen and new things are discovered.  Just a few days ago, my mother and father were working on our dog's pen- since we'll be going away on vacation soon they had to fix it since it had collapsed under pressure- the tarp couldn't hold the heavy snow from the Winter, so it bended the pen as it collapsed. So we bought a side panel for $80 at TSC in town; while working in there we came across a rabbit hole with five little precious baby bunnies!!




     My mother will sometimes constantly nag me during the Summer about me be lazy/ not doing anything, and normally asks me "So, whatch'a gonna do today?" So sometimes I get frantic since I don't have things planned out that I just come up with random ideas.

     Yogurt drops! I used Britney's cake decorating kit and made little droplets of yogurt, put them in the freezer for 15 minutes to a half hour and ta da! A healthy and delicious snack for those hot Summer days .

     And of course, who wouldn't want to try making Rock Candy?!? 4 cups of water & 8 cups of sugar. It's supposed to be 10 cups of sugar, but I sort of ran out. Wet your string/ sticks in water and roll them in sugar, let it dry REAL good before you put them in the cups. When the sugar and water comes to a boiling point, turn off the burner and let it cool down. Do not pour the hot liquid in the cups until it is completely cool or it will melt the sugar off your sticks as well. As I've learned from my previous experience. Let them sit in a window that gets plenty of sun for a whole week. Enjoy!

I made some cute cupcakes for our mother's day party last Saturday. The whole family came over to our house for a evening of fun and games. I'm really having a lot of fun with cupcakes.

           Me relaxing on Mother's day, fishing at a peaceful lake. It can't get much better than that.

                         A beautiful yellow butterfly was regularly visiting my tackle box.

Just some random shots of the lake

We have some lovely flowers growing right outside my bedroom window. Couldn't resist getting a few shots of them.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Springtime!!

P.S. I finished school last week, so that's where I've gotten all this free time to do all these things ;)

Shall we dance?

      This is a picture of me and some guy that I forget the name of last night at the dance. It was awesome (As usual)! It was a very light night though. An estimate of 30 people in all. And half of the guys were too chicken to ask any girls =P
I actually lost count of how many dances I got. I think 7 or 8..
     Favorite dances? Probably all the swing dances I did, there was a lot of them last night. And of course I love the cha cha cha. I'm starting to go with the more extreme version of it now. (:
Oh dear. My last dance...I couldn't figure out if I liked it or not.. It was some homeschooler senior guy named Joesph, stiff, really full of muscle guy, and he took strange steps, so it was hard to keep up with him. We danced..close...I'm also not sure if I liked that or not either. But near the end he said I was a really good dancer. Haha so I guess  I was doing something right (: He thought I was a sophomore..He said something like "So are you a sophomore?" I shook my head and he was like "freshman?" I shook my head again "junior?" I laughed and shook my head again "are you not in highschool?" I nodded and told him I was in eighth grade. He said I  look older and I told him that I get that  a lot. Joesph said that it wasn't really a bad thing, unless people still think I'm older when I'm 30! Haha.
     I danced with Michel(Luke's little brother) for the cha cha cha. He's so cute, and he's grown up so much now. :) It was pretty hard to dance with him because some guys were break dancing behind me so of course, he wanted to watch them. Eventually he made it so that if we both looked to our right we could both watch them.
    The next dance is May 19th. I really hope I can go!
The guy in the picture with me was explaining to me why there weren't a lot of people there last night, he said that a homeschool play was going on Friday and Saturday and the people that come to the dance are in it. Sooo that explains it (:
Lovely night!

Meet Frella

   Meet Frella, our newest family member. My mom found her just outside our downstairs sliding glass door yesterday. At first we were having fun with a toad in the yard, but I soon realized that her left back foot was completely lame...(is that the word?), it sort of drags behind her, depending on what position she's in. And not too soon after that, I saw that she was also missing her front right foot, the leg is there, just not her foot, so she props herself up on her leg.
   We soon figured out that we couldn't just let her go on like this,out on her own. So  I ran down to our red shed and got out our old aquarium, and  mom looked up what was required for a wild toad; which is basically 2-3 inches of damp dirt, a rock,  and  a wood thing she could go under.
    We've had her for two days now. I haven't seen her eat anything so I'm a little worried she won't be making it long, a website said to feed them at night and night only, otherwise you'd end up with a very hungry toad.  We've put in some apple, strawberries, lima beans and I even caught some live ants.
I'm hoping she'll eat them tonight, they're still in there crawling around.
 We shall see (:

Disagreed

Ahem. Disagreed. We are NOTHING near excellence. And it is defiantly not a habit of us humans! We are such fools. GOD IS EXCELLENCE. When God looked down and saw what He made He said it was good. GOOD.  Not excellence. Are you seeing my point here?
My sister's friend, had a youth group challenge. If anyone said awesome about something other than God, they had to donate a dollar to the church. You see, nothing is awesome, but God. We use so many word references to ordinary things in these days, that we never leave any greater words just for God.

 I almost forgot! I made this last night with my Bamboo Create (=

Spring's awakening

Hello world! I must apologize for not writing in a while. I've been..un-inspired to write lately, to say the least.
There are so many interesting and exciting things going on.
CBA classes have ended for the year. It's so sad to see it go, but I give it a graceful goodbye. I've grown so much from this year. I always had an issue with peer pressure, I only want people to like me. But 100% of the time what everyone else is doing is wrong. And it's okay to stand up and be the one that says no.
The bible says in Romans 12:2 :
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.

And I don't think I need to remind you of everything that the world is doing. Stop trying to fit in,  God created you to stand out.

Community Bible Study's last week is this Tuesday. I've had issues of what  they believe. But I was talking to my mom about it. Me and my sister, Britney have been pretty much sheltered from the "outside world" half full of unbelievers, that could mess up our thoughts if we hang around them too much. So seeing all these different views aren't really a bad thing. It's more like a training ground for us. They're making me and my sister stronger in our faith, so we won't be so quickly swayed. But we'll stand on our solid rock.

The ballroom dances I've been going to, has taken off the month of April. I'm surprised how much I miss being there. It's already become a part of me and is quickly becoming a deep and favored passion. The next one is May 5th. Don't be surprised if I write a blog post about it! (:

CBA recently had their Spring picnic. I was super excited because I was able to hang out with my friends. It has been three weeks since we've had classes. Me and my friend, Rachel spent pretty much the whole time together. My two favorite times that day was when  Rachel and I were going on a walk to see the football game and to find out where our third musketeer, David was. So once we get close up there everyone was heading back. David, Rachel and I decide to linger behind and walk together.
I found a caterpillar on a stick and i put it on his shirt, thinking it would be funny, until he flicked it off and it landed on me. I screamed big time. Totally wasn't expecting that. But I wasn't freaking out. I'm not extremely girly! (:
And number two, we were walking across this bridge thing and I saw a glove, so i went to move it off the bridge, not knowing a runner guy was right behind me. And apparently David even said "Steph! Look out" they thought i was trying to trip him! Endless fun times. So many of my favorite memories come straight from CBA.
That is all for now!
Hope you all are having a great week (:

Shine

There’s a place you can go
Where your heart is free
There’s a rhythm
That’s right for your soul

Take a breath, find your courage
And make the leap
Cause your feet always know where to go

And you dance and you dance in an endless flow
In the grace of a perfect design
Stepping out of the dark and into the glow
And the whole world will see when you shine
You can shine (shine)
Shine (shine)

There’s a beauty already inside of you
There’s a difference that only you’ll make
Every place that you spin brings you somewhere new
Finding hope every step that you take

And you dance and you dance in an endless flow
In the grace of a perfect design
Stepping out of the dark and into the glow
And the whole world will see when you shine
You can shine (shine)
Shine (Shine)

Suddenly sparkling bright (shine)
Making a magical light (shine)
You will (shine)
Sisters are there by your side
Love will be your guide

And we dance and we dance in an endless flow
In the grace of a perfect design
Stepping out of the dark and into the glow
The whole world will see when we shine
We will shine (shine)
Shine (shine)

(And we dance and we dance in an endless flow)
Stepping out of the dark and into the glow
(Stepping out of the dark and into the glow)
We will shine (we can shine)
(And we dance and we dance in an endless flow)
Stepping out of the dark and into the glow
(Stepping out of the dark and into the glow)
We will shine (we can shine)
(And we dance and we dance in an endless flow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z11AdDZXYJ8